Petition: HANDS OFF ATENCO NOW

Atenco farmers have been defending their lands for a decade against Enrique Peña Nieto’s attempts to forcefully take their lands and build an airport designed by British architect Norman Foster’s and Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim’s son-in-law, Fernando Romero.

These lands are under a collective rural landholding system established in the early 20th century. Atenco farmers were first offered by former president Vicente Fox (with Peña Nieto being State Governor) a pittance in compensation, and then brutally attacked by militarized police when they refused to sell their lands. During their protests, 2 protesters were killed, 26 women were raped by federal police officers, and their leaders were arrested, then condemned by corrupted judges to unsubstantiated sentences (up to 112 years in prison to one of them). They spent 5 years in prison and were finally freed thanks to public pressure.

As if all such suffering were not enough, now the Atenco people is under Peña Nieto’s attack . . . again. Clash groups have been created (affiliated to the PRI political party) to invade their lands, provoke the farmers and justify police force’s intervention. These are the same clash groups who vandalized Atenco’s iconic mural and provoked the farmers during the undemocratic vote assembly in 2014.

If and when this airport is effectively built pitting the local farmers to justify military police actions we won’t forget Atenco’s history.

WE DEMAND HANDS OFF ATENCO IMMEDIATELY. PRESIDENT PEÑA NIETO: WE DON’T WANT TO USE AN AIRPORT BUILT OVER SO MUCH BLOOD, SUFFERING, SEXUAL TORTURE AND UNJUST YEARS IN PRISON. WE WON’T LET PEOPLE FORGET THE PRICE OF THIS AIRPORT.

ARCHITECTS FOSTER AND ROMERO: WE WON’T WANT TO USE YOUR BLOODY AIRPORT AND WON’T LET PASSENGERS TO FORGET THE HUMAN PRICE. DESIST NOW!